In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, American Trucking Associations identified four areas where the Obama administration’s recent hours-of-service (HOS) rule falls short of legal standards for regulatory changes.
In a Statement of Issues filed with the Court, ATA contends that several aspects of the rule issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are “arbitrary and capricious” and should be overturned.
Specifically, ATA questioned changes to the restart provision requiring that it include two consecutive periods between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.; limits on the frequency with which a driver may use the restart; the requirement that a mandatory 30-minute break from driving also exclude all other on-duty activity; and narrowing—without prior notice—certain exceptions to drive-time regulations for local delivery drivers.
“While we had hoped to avoid litigation by providing FMCSA with overwhelming evidence that their rulemaking process and proposals were flawed, now that we have challenged this regulation we will do so vigorously and vocally,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. “There are still many areas where the trucking industry and FMCSA can work together to make progress on highway safety, but the unsoundness of this regulatory process has forced us into court.”
Related content: ATA Asks Federal Court to Review Hours-of-Service Rule